SNESCM: Scandinavian Network of Excellence in Software Configuration Management

Scandinavian Network of Excellence
in
Software Configuration Management

Half-day tutorial: SCM for team coordination

Abstract:

The book "Software Configuration Management - Coordination for Team Productivity" by Wayne Babich is a classic. The problems with team collaboration that Babich identified are "evergreens" and can/will never be eliminated by tools - even if some tools are more helpful than others. However, the tools/processes that he proposes to manage the problems can in some places seem a little out-dated and we will look at and discuss more contemporary tools/processes as solutions.

No organization - big or small - can ever avoid these problems completely. Even if you don't work with software development (e.g. the web-pages for SNESCM or the SCM day) or work alone you will be prone to these co-ordination problems. The best you can hope for is to be able to manage the situations and know the costs and benefits of the problems and solutions.

Through a number of interactive sessions we will work our way through most of this little pearl that Wayne Babich wrote more than 25 years ago.

From the book's cover notes:
"a book [...] that focuses on software configuration management as a day-to-day tool for increasing programmer productivity"

"effective software configuration management is a technique for coordinating programmers who are working together as a team developing a single product"

"software configuration management allows the team to maximize productivity by minimizing wasted effort, duplication, and confusion"

"the book explains the problems, solutions, and principles of software configuration management
the material is presented in an easy-to-read yet comprehensive manner
a strong emphasis is placed on practical solutions to real-world problems"

Quotes from the book:
"the failure [of software development] is one of coordination. Somehow we lack the ability to take 20 or 30 good programmers and meld them into a consistently productive team"

"I use the term [SCM] in a more expansive sense. I include not just the formal release of software to the customer, but the day-to-day and minute-by-minute evolution of the software inside the development team. Controlled evolution means that you not only understand what you have when you are delivering it, but you also understand what you have while you are developing it. Control helps to obtain maximum productivity with minimum confusion when a group of programmers is working on a common piece of software."

You will learn:

the three canonical co-ordination problems
the many ways in which these problems "disguise"
tools and processes to manage team collaboration
how and why these tools and processes may fail
versions and variants - commonalities and differences - problems and opportunities
derivations - i.e. history information and bill of materials
why interfaces, information hiding and modularity makes CM easier
how to balance the importance of stability versus the need for progress/speed
how to apply the principles

Speaker:

Lars Bendix, software configuration management educator and researcher - Associate Professor at Lund University

Practical Information:

Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Time: 9:00 - 12:30

Place: Department of Computer Science, Lund, Sweden

Number of participants: min. 6 - max. 16 (first-come-first-served) - 7 people registered.

Registration deadline: Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Price: 2.000 SEK + vat (includes morning refreshments, coffee breaks and lunch)
cancellation is not possible after registration deadline

Payment: by invoice after the tutorial

To register contact: Lars Bendix at bendix@cs.lth.se

Detailed Biography:

Lars Bendix is an associate professor at Lund University (www.cs.lth.se/~bendix). He is a driving force in academia for research and teaching of SCM. For more than 15 years he has had close collaboration with industry, both on joint research projects and as a consultant giving courses and advice on practical application of SCM. In 2004, he initiated the Scandinavian Network of Excellence in SCM (SNESCM) and has since 2005 organized its yearly Scandinavian SCM day. He holds a MSc from Århus University and a PhD in SCM from Aalborg University.

Lund, the home of SCM in Scandinavia

Maintained by bendix@cs.lth.se